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It's an exciting time to be a content marketer. But it's also a challenging time.

As more companies continue to jump on the inbound marketing bandwagon, the influx of content seems to be turning into a bit of a traffic jam. And few things have the power to cut through this noise like data storytelling.

Combining the visual appeal of images with the trust engendered by raw data, data storytelling is a force to be reckoned with. Marketers are using data storytelling to support every part of the buyer’s journey, from attraction and consideration to conversion and delight. What better content to offer a consideration-stage buyer than a comparison chart between your services and your competition’s?

Not a data analyst? No worries. Check out the list of tools below. From data collection to design, this roundup of resources is designed to make it easy for anyone to get started with data storytelling.

HubSpot's Blog Topic Generator: Have an idea of what your audience might be interested in, but don't know how to frame it? Plug a few relevant nouns into this tool to generate a ton of topic ideas that can be used for any project, not just blog articles.

Tools for Gathering Data

Whether you leverage your own data (like OKCupid’s fascinating dating trends blog) or tell stories using data collected by others, finding the right numbers can be a treasure hunt. These tools will help you dig.

The World Factbook: Information on people, places, history, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, and military. Still confused about Greece? This will tell you everything.

Data.gov: “The home of the U.S. Government’s open data” has information like housing price indexes, student loan data, health care provider charges and more in its more than 157,302 datasets. Of course, there’s also Healthdata.gov, and CDC.gov.

The important thing to remember when using other people’s data is – other people’s biases. Numbers don’t change according to social or government agendas, but how they are presented does. Be a good journalist and never trust your source 100% until you have thoroughly checked out the data and its origins.

Tools for Design

The design of your data visualization is nearly as important as the data you show. While you may choose a simple bar graph or line chart, you’ll still have to think of color schemes, supporting graphics, background images, and typography to create a visually compelling data story.

Tiff: Can't decide between two fonts? Compare and contrast different fonts using this tool.

WhatFont: Quickly identify fonts on a specific web page in just one click so you can use them for your own project.

All-in-One Tools:

Visage.co: Allows you to create high quality visual data stories efficiently, and at scale. When you need to create a lot of visual content, it’s an excellent option.

Silk.co: A place to publish data and create interactive visualizations with their tools.

Alteryx: A tool that does data preparation, analytics, reporting, and spatial design for you.

With these tools, you’ll be able to find compelling, accurate data. You’ll be able to design an eye-catching visualization. And, you’ll be able to craft your story to speak specifically to your target audience – and be heard above the noise.

What are your favorite data storytelling tools? Share the ones we missed below.